“Divide and rule!” The victors redrew the world map in a way that would possibly perpetuate ethnic and religious conflicts.
Invoking the principle of national self-determination, the peace system bringing World War I to an end tore apart the old empires of Europe and severed the countless civilisational bonds between their peoples. The victorious powers – principally Great Britain and France – followed the logic of colonialism not only in dividing up the Ottoman Empire and redrawing borders in the Middle East, but also in their vision for the old continent. This was unprecedented in European history. With deliberate disregard for ethnic realities, they created an array of new countries in Central Europe. This is how approximately one-fifth of German-speaking Europeans – around 13 million people – were consigned to the fate of being minorities in other countries. The results of referenda were ignored – for example in South Tyrol and Alsace-Lorraine, where a mere 10 per cent of the population spoke French. Only 51 per cent of the inhabitants of the newly created Czechoslovakia were Czech, and one in three citizens of Romania belonged to other ethnic groups. The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was home to seventeen ethnic groups. And as for Hungary, areas with Hungarian-majority populations were allocated to neighbouring countries, with new borders being drawn without consulting the people living there. In Central Europe one of the principal beneficiaries of World War I was Poland, which regained the independence it had lost in 1793.
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Franz Joseph’s death was felt as a tragedy by his contemporaries.
The military casualties of the war numbered 10 million dead and 21 million wounded.
The victors invoked the principle of “national self-determination”, but their decisions bore no trace of this.
After World War I the United States took over the leading role in world politics from Europe.
The continent’s victors and vanquished alike faced similar problems: everyday life was overshadowed by social unrest and economic hopelessness.
In three devastating waves, the pandemic killed over twenty million people: more than twice the number of soldiers killed in the war.
The organisation founded at President Wilson’s initiative was the first attempt at peaceful resolution of the world’s conflicts.
Violence and intimidation were from the very start the essence of communist dictatorships.
Attempts at transforming European societies and the threat of a communist world revolution posed a serious challenge to European states.
“Divide and rule!” The victors redrew the world map in a way that would possibly perpetuate ethnic and religious conflicts.
The dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy plunged the Kingdom of Hungary into its deepest crisis since the Ottoman occupation.
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A kommunista vezetőket bemutató adatbázisunk az 1989-ben megjelent Segédkönyv a politikai bizottság tanulmányozásához című kötet online változata.
A jelenleg 532 életrajzot, 6902 kronológiai adatot, valamint 990 bibliográfiai tételt tartalmazó digitális adattár folyamatosan bővül, így a Kommunizmuskutató Intézet megkezdi az állampárti diktatúra többi irányító szervezetére, azok képviselőire vonatkozó adatok összegyűjtését és publikálását.
A több évet igénybe vevő kutatómunka eredményeképp bemutatjuk majd a korszak parlamenti képviselőit, az Elnöki Tanács, a Minisztertanács, a Szakszervezetek Országos Tanácsa, a Hazafias Népfront, valamint a KISZ Kb stb. vezető testületeinek tagjait.
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